Chapter 14

Xuncang had a stalk of foxtail grass dangling from his mouth as he flicked the bracelet on his wrist.

The bracelet was very thin, densely engraved with runes. No matter how Xuncang changed the thickness of his wrist, it clung tightly to him. Xuncang’s other free hand transformed into a wolf claw and hooked onto the bracelet. He tried every trick in the book, but still failed to take it off.

Jiao Ruyan brushed back his sea-blue hair. His fishtail was completely soaking in a bath barrel, and his whole fish body had regained its luster. Lazily propping up his head, he said, “Stop wasting your energy. That is a magical artifact from Divine Creation Sect. You won’t be able to shake off that restriction.”

Xuncang raised his wolf claw and threatened darkly, “Jiao Ruyan, my Demonic power has not been sealed.”

That night, no matter how extraordinarily talented Lu Yan was, he was still in the Qi Refining stage. Drawing the array in reverse had barely trapped Xuncang, but that single instant was all he needed. After that, the talisman Shen Mengji brought out had been personally drawn by Pei Zhan, who was in seclusion. It carried Pei Zhan’s Spirit Transformation cultivation and was meant to protect his disciple.

No matter how fierce Xuncang was, he could not withstand being blasted over and over by a Lightning-Summoning Talisman drawn by a Spirit Transformation cultivator.

Later, Fuyi had carried the wolf king back to the sect with one hand. The moment she entered, she saw Daoist Yiwen waiting with a smile. He opened his mouth and asked for Xuncang. No one knew what they talked about, but by the time Xuncang was sent back to Qionggu Peak, that restriction bracelet was on him. It had not sealed his Demonic power, but he could not attack any Divine Creation Sect disciple.

Jiao Ruyan’s Demonic power was still sealed by heavenly lightning, and the scales on his tail were split open and bloody, not yet healed. He was scared out of his wits. The moment he saw those silver-glinting wolf claws, he shoved himself into the water and gazed up at the sky.

And then he saw He Nian drooling beside the bath barrel.

Jiao Ruyan: “…”

What sin had he committed!

Jiao Ruyan had been carried back by He Nian. That Spirit Transformation-level Lightning-Summoning Talisman had only worsened the injuries he had yet to recover from. Perhaps He Nian’s resentment over not getting to eat the Black Snow Fish was too heavy, because all along the way, he had stared at Jiao Ruyan’s scorched-black tail and swallowed his saliva, just short of taking a bite.

In fact, He Nian really did bite him.

Lu Yan still remembered the horrified look in Jiao Ruyan’s eyes when he woke up. Their relationship had abruptly shifted from “I want you to become my Dao companion” to the food-chain relationship of “You smell delicious.”

All one could say was that Jiao Ruyan was truly worthy of being Jiao Ruyan. He was only horrified for a moment before he brought out the mental fortitude he had built over hundreds of years as a cross-dressing bigshot and leisurely said to He Nian, “Your teeth are pretty average.”

He Nian threw Jiao Ruyan down and ran off in tears.

Jiao Ruyan lay on the ground. “Tsk. Young people these days.”

Later, Lu Yan dug a bath barrel out of the warehouse, filled it with the water left over from planting spirit rice, and used it to nurse Jiao Ruyan. The effect seemed pretty good. At the very least, he looked far better than that miserable, tragic state he had been in at the auction.

Lu Yan was currently holding a small piece of silver. He melted it with fire seed into the shape of a ring, then took out a carving knife. Abundant spiritual power wound around the tip of the blade as he engraved a complicated array onto the tiny ring setting. Once he finished, he gripped the ring and closed his eyes to sense it for a while. Then his face lit up with delight. “It worked!”

This was exactly the space Lu Yan had wanted to make for a long time, one that could hold living things!

Being able to make it was thanks to the secret realm Xuncang had refined. This secret realm had been stolen by Jiao Ruyan to hide from his lightning tribulation, though he had not had time to use it. After arriving at Divine Creation Sect, he could only return it to its rightful owner. Lu Yan had then borrowed it to study. Its principles were similar to Xuncang’s innate ability, teleportation. Lu Yan deconstructed the array and experimented with all sorts of metals, none of which worked very well. In the end, it was the most common silver block that let him create this space closest to his original concept.

Lu Yan took out another piece of crystal, polished it into a round shape, and set it on the ring setting. His spiritual sense entered the space.

It was a very desolate stretch of land. It was not wide, and there was nothing there. Lu Yan used his hand as a brush and drew a Spirit-Gathering Array in the void, placing spirit stones at the array nodes. Golden light flashed, and the array sank underground. The small space began drawing in spiritual energy from the outside world, twining it together with the spiritual energy in the spirit stones to form a new little world.

Lu Yan’s spiritual sense returned to his body. He simply moved an entire newly planted plot of spirit rice from Qionggu Peak into the space.

Next, all he had to do was wait.

With a flick of his finger, Lu Yan tossed the ring to He Nian. “Your wages.”

He Nian fumbled to catch the ring and looked left and right. “What are wages?”

Lu Yan said, “It’s a small space. Send your spiritual sense inside and look.”

He Nian’s Demonic power was sealed, but his spiritual sense still worked. He knew Lu Yan liked tinkering with things, and everything he tinkered into existence was good stuff, so at those words, he obediently immersed his spiritual sense inside. He saw a paddy field on the land, swaying faintly with the spiritual energy.

It was spirit rice!

Spirit rice that could increase cultivation after being eaten!

And judging by this feeling, he had even used middle-grade spirit stones!

He Nian’s eyes went wide. Tearfully, he said to Lu Yan, “Little Ancestor!”

Lu Yan: “Huh?”

With a thump, He Nian threw himself over and hugged Lu Yan’s thigh. “From now on, you’re my real ancestor!”

Lu Yan: “…”

That was really unnecessary.

Xuncang silently appeared beside Lu Yan, forcibly pried the ring out of He Nian’s palm, closed his eyes to sense it, and said in surprise, “It can store living things?”

Spirit rice needed to grow, so of course it counted as a living thing.

The five-hundred-year-old baby He Nian could not beat Xuncang and could only aggrievedly clutch a corner of Lu Yan’s Daoist robe. “You gave that to me!”

Xuncang rolled his eyes hard and returned the ring to He Nian. “Who cares?”

His secret realm was way bigger than this, all right!

Although the misunderstanding about “stealing his Dao companion” had been resolved, He Nian still disliked Xuncang. After getting the ring back, he wiped it again and again, terrified that even the slightest bit of wolf smell might remain on it.

Lu Yan said, “If you like eating fish, you can catch two fish and raise them inside.”

He Nian slowly turned his head and fixed his gaze on the bath barrel holding Jiao Ruyan.

Jiao Ruyan: “…”

Jiao Ruyan flicked his tail, making the bath barrel rock unsteadily. With his own strength, he made it clear that the small space not only could not fit him, but might also crush He Nian’s spirit rice field.

He Nian sighed in disappointment.

Jiao Ruyan: “…”

Damn it.

Xuncang toyed with the bracelet on his right wrist, crossed one leg like some old master, and sat beside Lu Yan. As if casually, he said, “Back then, when Yiwen’s eyes still worked, he came to me with a bet. He said that if he won, I would give him that tiny tuft of white fur on my tail. At the time, he was at the height of Spirit Transformation, brimming with fighting spirit. I fought him for two days and three nights, and lost to him by a single move. I could only hand over the stake, very unwillingly. I asked him what he wanted it for…”

At this point, Xuncang paused and looked at Lu Yan.

The child’s expression was serious, his pitch-black eyes seeming to hold countless stars.

Xuncang had lived for a very long time. Three thousand years was enough for him to watch the geniuses of the cultivation world go from shattering the void and opening the Path to Heaven, to failing to find the proper method and perishing beneath lightning tribulations.

The entire cultivation world was moving from prosperity toward decline. At some unknown point, spiritual energy might disappear, cultivators might disappear, the demon race might disappear, and even the human race might disappear.

Lu Yan asked, “What did Martial Uncle Yiwen say?”

Xuncang remembered Daoist Yiwen’s eyes, unable to take in even the faintest trace of light. Then he thought of this child in front of him, who had used his weak Qi Refining cultivation to trap him, and even seen through the secret of the secret realm.

One had to know that Xuncang had refined this secret realm in a confused muddle by relying on his innate ability, and even now he still had not figured out how the principles behind it worked. Yet after it made a single round through Lu Yan’s hands, the boy was able to create something more or less the same.

The gap between people was even bigger than the gap between people and wolves.

Xuncang tapped the air with the tip of his foot, raised one finger, and said, “He said, the secrets of heaven cannot be revealed.”

Lu Yan’s dead-fish eyes: “…”

Lu Yan changed the question. “Then what happened to Martial Uncle Yiwen’s eyes?”

“Tsk.” At this topic, Xuncang’s expression turned indescribable. “You know your sect’s previous sect master perished during his tribulation, right? At the time, those senior and junior martial brothers of his tried to save the previous sect master’s divine soul. Some had their realms regress, others were seriously injured. Yiwen was the impressive one. He used both his eyes and his Spirit Transformation cultivation as the price and forcibly sent the previous sect master into reincarnation. What do you call that?”

Lu Yan: “Deep brotherly affection?”

With an expression that said, “Children really are children and understand nothing,” Xuncang said, “That is true love!”

Lu Yan: “…”

Lu Yan: “Is gossip your side job?”

Xuncang: “I have no interest in the Eight Trigrams.”

Talking past each other. Nothing more than this.

The next day.

Lu Yan was researching how to carve an array onto a jade pendant.

One little white rabbit after another was thrown in front of Lu Yan, ears tied to ears. Their four limbs lay obediently against their bodies, and their red eyes were full of dull blankness. Even after being tossed on the ground, they did not resist.

Lu Yan looked up. It was Xuncang’s foul-looking face.

The wolf king, who had cultivated thick skin for over three thousand years, said with perfect confidence, “You planted spirit rice for that fat bird, so I want to raise rabbits too!”

With a movement of his spiritual sense, Lu Yan stepped onto a rock and slowly stood up. He rose onto his tiptoes and barely managed to reach Xuncang’s shoulder, patted it twice, and said, “Stay right here and don’t wander off. I’m going to buy you an orange.”

Xuncang asked, “Will feeding rabbits oranges make them grow better?”

Lu Yan took out the water mirror. On the other side was He Changyue’s huge face.

The principle behind the water mirror was simple, mainly thanks to a miraculous thing in the cultivation world called a spiritual sense mark. It was unique and could be used as an identity card. By using an array to connect two spiritual sense marks, one could rely on the water mirror to speak.

He Changyue’s face was flushed red, and the corners of his mouth were about to split all the way to his temples. He said loudly, “Little Junior Brother! All the lamps the He family put out for sale have been sold. Do you still have new stock over there? The more the better!”

Lu Yan asked He Changyue, “I do. Where are you right now?”

He Changyue said, “Just got back to Sword Sect.”

Lu Yan looked thoughtfully at Xuncang.

…

Sword Sect, a towering natural chasm.

The gatekeeping elder sat cross-legged in front of the gate. Suddenly, his eyes flew open, and sword intent released in an instant, coercion spreading through the air.

A black shadow flew over from the horizon. Without even looking at the crisscrossing sword qi below, it charged recklessly toward Sword Sect.

Surging Demonic power collided with the gatekeeping elder’s sword intent. That Demonic power was vast, condensing into substance. In less than a breath, it forced the gatekeeping elder back by sheer force.

The gatekeeping elder clutched his chest, and a sword flew out, transforming into countless sword shadows that exploded above Sword Sect. His deep voice resounded between heaven and earth: “Enemy attack!”

When He Changyue heard the shout, he hurriedly grabbed his sword in a fluster and wondered in confusion, “Who would dare come to Sword Sect to run wild…”

Then a streak of black light stopped in front of He Changyue.

He Changyue: “…run wild?”

As the black figure finally came to a stop, one sword intent after another behind him surrounded the black shadow and He Changyue in layer upon layer.

The Sword Sect master shouted sternly, “Xuncang! My Sword Sect and you have never interfered with each other. Why have you come to Sword Sect to cause trouble?”

He Changyue: “!!!”

Who who who?

Wolf-wolf-wolf-wolf king Xuncang?

Xuncang’s face was pitch-black. He ignored the Sword Sect master and instead looked down from above at He Changyue. “You are He Changyue?”

“Huh?” He Changyue trembled. “Uh…”

The Sword Sect master’s longsword left its sheath. “I am warning you. If you dare touch a Sword Sect disciple, I will make you repay blood with blood!”

“Ha.” Xuncang gave a sneer and took a storage pouch out of his sleeve. “Lu Yan gave this to you.”

He Changyue pointed at himself in disbelief. “Which Lu Yan?”

Xuncang did not like looking at the stinking faces of Sword Sect people, never realizing in the slightest that his own stinking face was even stinkier. Impatiently, he said, “What other Lu Yan could there be? Do you want it or not?”

“I do, I do, I do, I do!” He Changyue hurriedly took the storage pouch. Opening it, he saw that it was full of lamps of every color, all already sorted by category. He beamed, and all his nerves vanished like smoke. “Thanks, brother. Sorry to make you run all the way here!”

Only after saying it did He Changyue remember who was standing before him.

Xuncang.

Wolf king Xuncang.

Xuncang crossed his arms over his chest. “Who’s your brother?”

He Changyue shrank into himself like a quail. “I was wrong!”

The Sword Sect elders: “…”

Whose disciple was this? He had no Sword Sect spirit at all!

The Sword Sect master: “…”

Damn it, the hand holding up my sword is getting a little sore.

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